Richard R. Renner

E-mail MeRichardR.Renner

RICHARD RENNER joined the firm in May 2013 as "Of Counsel," having had more than 30 years experience representing employees in a wide range of civil rights and whistleblower cases. He has particular experience in using litigation to advance the rights of employees, consumers and immigrants.

Mr. Renner is a 1978 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a 1981 graduate of New York University Law School. While in law school, he volunteered to represent claimants through the Unemployment Action Center. As the principal of Tate & Renner in Dover, Ohio, he represented environmental whistleblowers, victims of wage theft, consumers and immigrants. He served as Co-Chair of the Whistleblower Committee of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), and twice won election to NELA's Executive Board. He served as Legal Director of the National Whistleblowers Center.

Mr. Renner has undertaken advocacy with the U.S. Department of Labor, submitting numerous official regulatory comments on how the Department can improve its program to protect whistleblowers. He testified to the Department's Whistleblower Protection Program Advisory Committee (WPAC) meetings in January, 2013, and March, 2014. The Department acknowledged his comments as the impetus for improvements in the Department's final regulations. He has written a series of amicus briefs addressing the scope of protection and procedural rights of corporate fraud whistleblowers under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). He co-wrote the only amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to accept the case of Lawson v. FMR LLC. The Supreme Court accepted the case. Mr. Renner then co-wrote the amicus brief of the National Employment Lawyers Association and the Government Accountability Project on the merits. On March 4, 2014, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision establishing that SOX protects the employees of the contractors of public companies. Mr. Renner was the lead author of an amicus brief in Foster v. University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 2015 WL 2405266 (4th Cir. 2015). Arguing on behalf of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association (MWELA), the brief successfully argued that traditional methods of proving retaliation still apply after the Supreme Court's decision in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, 133 S.Ct. 2517 (2013).

Mr. Renner volunteers with Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Serving as a Big Brother since 2000, Mr. Renner received the Big Brother of the Year Award from Big Brothers/Big Sisters of East Central Ohio in 2004.

Mr. Renner is married to Laura Yeomans, a Parish Partners Coordinator for Catholic Charities. They have an adult daughter, Jennie Copeland, who resides in North Carolina.

Areas of Practice

Employment Law

Whistleblower Law

Discrimination and Harassment

Civil Rights

Bar Admissions

Ohio

District of Columbia

Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court Northern District of Ohio

U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. Court of Appeals 1st Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Court of Appeals Federal Circuit

Education

New York University School of Law, New York, New York

J.D. - 1981

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

S.B. - 1978

Major: Mathematics

Published Works

Lead author of NELA amicus brief in Howe v. City of Akron, 2013

Blowing the Whistle, a letter to the editor, Scientific American, December, 2010

Co-wrote amicus brief in Day v. Department of Homeland Security on behalf of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), February 28, 2013

Submitted comments to U.S. Department of Labor on Rules of Practice and Procedure for Hearings Before the Office of Administrative Law Judges, February 4, 2013

Submitted a written public comment and oral testimony to the Department of Labor's Whistleblower Protection Program Advisory Committee, January 29, 2013

Submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urging health insurance coverage for immigrants with lawful deferred status, October 21, 2012

Submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on regulations for handling whistleblower complaints under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) as modified by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Presented "NTSSA Fact Sheet" on the National Transit System Security Act for the Executive Board of Local 689 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, 2010

Presented "Ethics in the Face of Evil" to the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) Convention, 2010

Submitted a report to the UN Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council, on how the United States fails to comply with international human rights standards protecting whistleblowers, April 19, 2010

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Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman & Fitch, P.C. in Washington DC serves clients nationwide and around the world. We also help clients from Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, McLean, Tyson's Corner, Reston, Bethesda, Rockville, Silver Spring, Germantown, College Park, Greenbelt, Fort Washington and Upper Marlboro. We also represent clients from Montgomery County, Fairfax County and Prince Georges County in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.